The first Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates ad has arrived. You can tell that it's …

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The first Windows ad from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the ad agency that won the big $300 million contract with Microsoft, features Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. It has made its appearance on television, but you can watch it on YouTube, at the Windows homepage, stream it, or download it straight from Microsoft. Everyone at the Orbiting HQ gives the ad a big WTF, me included. Compare it to the HP ad Seinfeld did last year, and you've really got to wonder what the hell happened.

The ad is set mainly in a shoe store. Microsoft and Windows are only mentioned once in the whole commercial, and we only see the Vista logo right at the end. One thing is for sure: this ad definitely does not start to tell "the real Vista story." Maybe it's lame, but the commercial is actually quite a big deal. It marks the largest consumer marketing campaign in the history of Microsoft. According to a press release, this ad is only the beginning:

The new campaign will highlight how Windows has become an indispensable part of the lives of a billion people around the globe—not only on PCs but also now online and via mobile devices. It will illustrate how Windows integrates consumer experiences across PCs, online and on mobile phones through Windows Vista, Windows Live and Windows Mobile.

The first ad surely doesn't show anything of the sort. It's definitely the first one though, because Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld have only just met. By the end of the ad, they apparently become good friends, suggesting a long friendship and advertising series in the making. Sure, there isn't anything that would get people interested in Windows, but Microsoft claims that these early ads are "designed to spark a conversation about the Windows brand," and from what I've seen so far, this first ad has got people talking. Too bad it seems to be mostly negative (although many in the ad industry would argue that's a good thing).

There is, however, one thing that I truly appreciate Microsoft doing here: the company isn't addressing the "Get a Mac" ads, as many thought they would. It's doing its own thing. We'll see how good that is in due time, but I'm happy that the software giant has decided not to call out Apple in its own ads, at least not in this first one. So far, these ads seem to be very subtle. Whether that's a good thing, we'll see in a few weeks.